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Vermilion County Board – Dec 10, 2013 Meeting –

Videos of this and other meetings are located (HERE) on the Vermilion County website.

December 10th 2013. Vermilion County Board Meeting.

The meeting was called to order on time and the agenda and minutes from last month’s meeting was approved. Absent were both District 1 board members (Todd Johnson and Chris Leigh) along with Stark, Barry and Davis. The board chairman asked for audience comments and reminded everyone that each person was allowed 5 minutes and the total time allowed would be 30 minutes for this part of the agenda. There was no mention this month of placing Vermilion County residents first or moving wind turbines victims to the end of the audience comments (related article here). Apparently, this rule has been revised again.
The number of county residents that are speaking against the industrial wind turbines continues to increase.
1. The first to speak is Arthur Kronkite. Mr. Kronkite starts with a quote from Thomas Paine “The duty of a patriot is to protect the country from its government” Mr. Kronkite holds the county board liable for the any expansion of industrial wind turbines. He also hold the board responsible for the health and safety of its citizens. Mr. Kronkite notes that the wind industry is well aware of the noise issue, since they have a gag order on every land owner that signs a lease with them. Another great summary of the actions of the Vermilion county board from Mr. Kronkite.
2. Next up is Robert Wayne Acton from Collison. Mr. Acton is a member of the Republican Party and an elected official of Pilot Township. He states that up until recently he thought the county board was in good hands. Not so much now. With their disregard of the wind turbine victim’s, he considers the board now acting arrogantly and deceitful to propose their own personal agendas. He no longer trusts our county elected officials to represent the best interests of all the people. As a past member of his family, Lord Acton once said: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. He is thinking of this board when he says this. This is a great 5 minute talk from Mr. Acton and not to be missed. Please watch it on the video. At the end, Mr. Acton asks if anybody is even listening. There is no response from the board.
3. Third is Dave Miles from Hope. He tells the board that the turbine noise is over the limit tonight. He tells the board that his daughter is being greatly affected by the turbine noise. Once a straight A student, now she is tired all the time, not sleeping well. Mr. Miles states that children should not be exposed to these noise making machines. Mr. Miles once again notes that Mike Marron (District 2) board member should recuse himself from taking any action on wind turbines since according to Mr. Miles his family receives more than $750,000 from all the turbines on their properties. Mr. Marron is also the chair of the Vermilion County Structural Safety committee that has oversight and approval of industrial wind turbine complexes in the county. There was no response from the chairman or board member Marron. Mr. Marron can be reached at: Mike Marron, 22239 N. 180 East Rd., Fithian, IL. 61844. (217)-841-5269. Mikem1976356@yahoo.com.
4. Matt Carl next. Mr. Carl is concerned about the continued noise at his house from the industrial wind turbines. He is starting a new job and will need to be up at 3:30 am every day. Mr. Carl also informed the board that his son cannot sleep due to the wind turbine noise. He maintains that this is a serious issue for his family. There continues to be no response from the board.
5. Darrell Cambron – Mr. Cambron spoke to the board about the recent second blade failure at the Invenergy Industrial wind complex in Pilot Township with their GE 1.6-100 turbine. Mr. Cambron also informed the board that within the last year, the GE 1.6-100 turbine has had blade failures at the Invenergy Orangeville N.Y. facility. Two failures of the same turbine in Michigan and on last year at the E.On complex in Illinois, also the GE 1.6-100 turbine. Mr. Cambron requested that the county consider a moratorium on further industrial wind turbines until these structural failures have been investigated or at least increase the setbacks from family homes to better protect the county residents. Mr. Cambron also requested that the county Structural-Safety committee investigate the structural failures as is the right of the county. There was no response from the county. (Note: Mr. Cambron is a Republican candidate for county board, District 1).
6. Kirk Allen – Mr. Allen identified himself as a member of the Edgar County Watchdogs. Mr. Allen reminded the board that the by county statute, the intent of the public comment portion of the meeting is for the public to ask questions AND GET ANSWERS from the board. Mr. Allen asks the board to dig deep into their hearts and respond to the citizens that are being harmed by industrial wind turbines. There is applause after Mr. Allen speaks and no response from the board.
7. Ted Hartke – Mr. Hartke lives in the middle of the Invenergy industrial wind complex in Pilot Township. He reminded the board that recently a Judge in Massachusetts found that people are being harmed by being too close to industrial wind turbines. Mr. Hartke announced to the board that he will be abandoning his home and that his family will be spending their next Christmas in a double-wide farther from the turbines. His children will spend their first Christmas away from the only home they have ever known. Mr. Hartke also requested that the county board follow up on last month’s meeting when board member Fox suggested that the county look into zoning to better protect the residents from industrial wind turbines Although the motion was seconded by Mr. McMahon, it was ignored by the board chairman. Mr. Hartke’s request was also ignored. Mr. Hartke’s situation is not new to this issue. There have been many families that have been forced from their homes due to noise and shadow flicker from industrial wind turbines across the country. The really bad part of this is that the county board was WELL AWARE OF THIS ISSUE YEARS AGO! And they continue to do nothing.
It should be noted that the board chairman stated that his office is open for discussion on the wind turbine issue and to date no one has come to talk to him. At this point Mr. Hartke speaks up to ask when he will be available in the morning and the chairman states that Mr. Hartke’s public comment part of the meeting is over. It should also be noted that the current board chairman met with citizens over three years ago in the county board office to address concerns with industrial wind turbines and the inadequacies of the county ordinance. Those concerns were ignored at that time setting the precedence for the lack of response from the county to this day.

Next on the agenda is Vickie Haugen from Vermilion Advantage. Vermilion Advantage facilitates bringing new business opportunities to Vermilion County. She delivered a written report to the county board as well as delivered a statement. The written report is available from the county board office through the freedom of information act. Ms. Haugen outlined some projects that her office has developed including the move by Fulfil from Rossville to Henning, the Watchfire Co., the Steel-Grip Co. and the 6th McDonald’s in the county. Mr. Haugen also announces that her office will be on-line with a new web-site as of the date of this month’s meeting.

Next on the agenda is another update from Invenergy attorney Mike Blazer (previous article here) on the noise study being done by Invenergy. Mr. Blazer first spoke about the recent second blade break at his industrial wind complex. Information given to him concluded that the blade break this time was due to recent bad weather and several lightning strikes. The chairman asks for questions from the board only and several questions are asked by the board members about the blade structural failure. Mr. Blazer tells the chairman and the board that a full report will be coming and it will be available to the public through the freedom of information act. Mr. Alexander asks for a written response from Invenergy as to why the aviation lights were not operational after the storm passed through the area. Mr. Blazer goes on to say that his wind turbines are compliant with the Illinois Pollution Control Board standards for noise in 7 of 9 frequencies and within compliance on 2 of 9 frequencies with a 95% reliability. Mr. Blazer finds it puzzling that today is the first he has heard of low frequency noise complaints. Oddly, Mr. Hartke and others have e-mails of numerous low frequency noise complaints as well as bringing it to the attention of the county board. Mr. Green asks: Just because it’s within IPCB limits doesn’t mean that it doesn’t impact people. Mr. Blazer agrees and notes that the IPCB limits were written before the age of huge industrial wind turbines. Mr. Blazer suggest that everyone Google “Wind Turbine Syndrome” for more information on low frequency problems with industrial wind turbines. Mr. Blazer also notes that the issues with his wind turbines will be resolved one way or another most likely through a lawsuit. It is pathetic that the county has done nothing to support is citizens up to this point and will leave it up to the individual county resident to pursue the issue through the court system if they can afford it. Please see the video for the full details from Mike Blazer or Mr. Blazer can be contacted at: Michael S. Blazer, Jeep & Blazer, L.L.C., 24 N. Hillside Ave, Suite A, and Hillside, IL. 60162. (708)236-0830, Cell# (708)404-9091, mblazer@enviroatty.com. Note that Mr. Blazer is now also the attorney for the Apex Wind complex that has been approved for the Hoopeston area of the county.

There was no executive session this week. Under chairman’s comments: the chair announced that the integrator for the Juvenile Detention center would be installed this week, the new boilers were installed and undergoing operational testing.

Agenda item #14, appointments for December were set aside. No reason was given.

Agenda Item 18 Clerks table announced that they were given the 6 month report from the recorders office.

The next Vermilion County board meeting is January 14th, 2013 at 6:00 PM at the courthouse annex.